Notre Dame Signs Great Wide Receiver Class

How good is the wide receiver class that Notre Dame signed?

Notre Dame signed a very good recruiting class on February 3. Even though some high rated linebackers like Ben Davis from Alabama, Caleb Kelly of California, and Jeffrey McCulloch of Texas did not sign with the Fighting Irish, Jonathan Jones, a three start linebacker from Florida did sign. Other good news was that none of the 23 recruits flipped on or around National Signing Day as has happened in the past.

Final grades for Notre Dame’s 2016 class range from 10^th to 15^th in the country. One of the position groups the Irish recruited well was wide receivers. Let’s review this very good three person group of Chase Claypool, Javon McKinley, and Kevin Stepherson.

Chase Claypool is 6’5”, 215 pounds and is from Abbotsford High School in Vancouver, British Columbia. Claypool is a great athlete. He had 1,473 receiving yards and 18 receiving touchdowns along with scoring another 11 touchdowns by rushing and returning both punts and kickoffs. Astoundingly, he played defense and was tied for first as the team’s leading tackler with 74 stops and he also had five interceptions. Notre Dame won out for Claypool by beating his other finalists Oregon, Michigan, Rutgers, and Washington. Besides his big size, Claypool has excellent hands and runs great routes for a big man. He was a three star recruit before this past football season and became a four star one after it. That speaks volumes for him and his future.

Javon McKinley is 6’2”, 195 pounds from Centennial High School in Corona, California. He is also a four-star wide receiver. During his senior season, he caught 56 passes for 1,173 yards and 13 touchdowns. He had offers from USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Florida, and Stanford. He chose Notre Dame from his three finalists with the Fighting Irish beating out Washington and Oregon. McKinley was ranked the 18^th receiver in the country by 247 Sports.com. He crowned his high school football career by being selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American game in San Antonio. It was at this game that he gave his verbal commitment to the Fighting Irish. McKinley is an elite receiver with great speed. His height and speed will have him play as an outside receiver in Notre Dame’s offense.

Although not one of the highest rated wide receivers in the country (three star) Kevin Stepherson from First Coast High School in Jacksonville, Florida is a prized recruit. 247Sports.com rates him as the 126^th wide receiver in the country and Rivals.com. Stepherson had 48 receptions for 835 yards and 10 touchdowns during his senior season. He is 6’1”, 185 pounds. That is the same measurement that Will Fuller had this past season.

His offer list included some of the premier teams in the country including Florida, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, and others. Stepherson also has great speed. He is noted for how well he runs routes. He has an advantage over Javon McKinley and Chase Chaypool in that he is an early enrollee at Notre Dame and has now been on campus for a month. Even through he is only a three star wide receiver, watch Stepherson do great things for the Fighting Irish.